Douglas SBD Dauntless Carrier-Borne Dive Bomber Aircraft (1938)

Douglas SBD Dauntless Carrier-Borne Dive Bomber Aircraft (1938)

The SBD Dauntless bomber was the principle Allied dive bomber in the Pacific Theater of Operations.

Staff Writer (Updated: 5/16/2016):

The Douglas DBS Dauntless dive bomber was a key cog in the America Navy war effort throughout the Pacific during World War 2. Though a product of the middle-to-late 1930's, the type continued to soldier on even as more advanced warplanes were appearing out of American factories as the war progressed. Despite its classification and appearance, the SBD Dauntless could more than handle its own against the lightly armored Japanese fighters in the Theater. The Douglas SBD would build for itself a history of resilience despite its inherent limitations in design - a history that very few other aircraft of the war would be able to match - and be responsible for the sinking of thousands of tons of Japanese shipping.

Design was conventional with the large radial engine mounted in the extreme forward portion of the fuselage, just forward of the cockpit. The glazed cockpit could accommodate two personnel - the pilot in a forward area and the gunner in a rear cockpit, seated back-to-back. The rear cockpit contained a trainable gun position (7.62mm type machine guns) and played a major defensive role in the survival of many an SBD system and crew. The pilot doubled as the bombardier and also manned fixed-forward gun systems which (eventually) would feature two 12.7mm (.50 caliber) heavy machine guns. Wings were of low-wing monoplane types situated under the fuselage and featured the noticeably large perforated dive flaps so consistent with the series. The empennage was a traditional assembly with a single vertical tail surface. The real meat and potatoes for the SBD was in her ability to carried a substantial bomb load that could be supplanted by depth charges if need be. A total of 2,250lbs of external ordnance was capable.

Capabilities for the SBD were adequate considering the type, with power derived from the single Wright-brand R-1820 series air-cooled engine rated at over 1,000 horsepower (and achieving progressively better returns as new engines were introduced throughout her production life). Top speeds of 250 miles per hour could be reached along with a ceiling of just around 25,500 feet with a range of well over 1,000 miles. At first glance, the performance specs might have left a little to be desired of in the SBD design but it was soon proven to be a steady performer even when called upon to battle the fabled Japanese fighters. Japanese fighters, though agile and mounting powerful weaponry, were relatively lightly armored (if at all) and offered up a fair fight to the equally-powerful SBD series. The Dauntless would earn itself many an air kill before the end of the war thanks to the know-how and bravery of her crews and deficiencies in the design of her adversary aircraft.

The SBD came online as a development from the Douglas company (after their absorption of the Northrop Corporation) and was designed in request to a new US Navy dive bomber proposal. The XBT-1 was the product of this development and led to limited production of BT-1's. This was followed by a now re-designated XSBD-1 series featuring improvements to flying surfaces and the landing gear and entered official production with the more identifiable "SBD" designation in the initial SBD-1 models. Early versions featured a relatively weak setup of forward-fixed 7.62mm machine guns (x2) and a single trainable gun of equal caliber to cover the rear. The SBD-2 appeared soon after and offered up an increase to fuel capacity. The SBD-3 gave crew members reason to celebrate as a bulletproof windscreen was finally introduced along with self-sealing fuel tanks and improved armor protection. Armament was also revised and improved to the series standard of 2 x 12.7mm machine guns (forward-fixed) and 2 x 7.62mm guns at rear. The SBD-3 also introduced the Wright R-1820-52 powerplant and even better fuel capacity. The definitive SBD model arrived in the SBD-5 which sported the more powerful R-1820-60 series radial with an increase to total ammunition and produced to the tune of some 3,000 examples.